


Softness Beneath Fingertips

by Princex_N



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Autism, Autistic Will Graham, Dogs, Drabble, Gen, In a way, Past Abuse, Stimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 14:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3940840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princex_N/pseuds/Princex_N
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dogs are easier than people are. </p><p>They don't remind him "Quiet Hands" in angry tones that make him flinch when he flaps. They don't make disappointed faces when he can't speak right or when he can't make himself look at their eyes. They don't come up behind him and hold him still when he rocks, and they don't get mad when the only thing he can talk about is psychology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Softness Beneath Fingertips

Will Graham likes dogs. 

This is nothing that surprises anyone, especially not when they enter his house and find all of his dogs. 

The only one of his dogs to be formally adopted was his first one, a collie named Alicia. He had bought her with the intention of training her to act as a service dog, but his aversion to therapists and her aversion to listening meant that it didn't quite work out. He keeps her anyway (of course he does, what else would he do with her?), and finds that, while her fur sticks unpleasantly to his palms when they sweat, the feeling of it beneath (dry) fingers is terrific. 

After her come the rest. One by one they find their way into his home and he finds it easy to love every one of them. 

Dogs are easier than people are. 

They don't remind him "Quiet Hands" in angry tones that make him flinch when he flaps. They don't make disappointed faces when he can't speak right or when he can't make himself look at their eyes. They don't come up behind him and hold him still when he rocks, and they don't get mad when the only thing he can talk about is psychology. 

He's found that the strays are better for him. He loves Alicia just as much as any of the others, but when he finds a dog walking alone as he drives to or from his house he can't help the way his heart pulls uncomfortably. When he goes to help them (and he will _always_ find time to pick up a dog, he's lost jobs that way, showing up late too many times doesn't bode well for employment) he can't help but feel like he's fixing some part of himself. 

He is all too familiar with the feelings of isolation and the confusion of being reprimanded or abandoned. Helping the stray dogs feels like helping himself, at a time when no one else stopped to help him. 

It's stupidly sentimental, but he's helping dogs, so he figures that he'll allow it. 

The dogs help him in return. 

An unnecessary gesture, but one he appreciates. 

This help come in a variety of gestures, technically. The weight of a dog in his lap when he can feel the incomings of a meltdown. The gentle nudgings of a cold nose to drag him out of nightmares. The patient allowings of hours of smoothing his fingers through their fur or running his fingernails over their heads. The bigger dogs walking beside him when sometimes it gets hard to balance properly or pushing themselves between him and another person when they go on walks. 

Seven different dogs, seven different weights, textures, sounds that Will can focus on for hours. He loves them, and they love him back. And it's easy to be around them. And there are many, many reasons that Will loves dogs. 

He takes care of them, and the seven of them take care of him. It's a better family than one he ever had before, and he wouldn't give it up for the world. 

**Author's Note:**

> [ Stop by my Tumblr ](http://www.princex-n.tumblr.com)


End file.
